What is and has been done with this ash waste?
It is usually used as a bonding agent in cement.
Duke Energy thought they had the answer...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/duke-energy-fined-102-million-in-coal-ash-spill/
Just kidding. As someone that has wondered many a NC wood and waterway, that was a horrible situation.
A friend works for the local utility. He travels 5 days a week carrying loads of fly ash from a closed small coal plant to another active plant. There are 100 loads a day of fly ash transported. He does 500 miles a day.
This project has been going on 3.5 years and has another 3.5 years left. The sad part is the plant had another 20-30 years of useful economic life left, but was closed because some non scientist judge deemed CO2, food for all plant life, a pollutant. It is sad because the idiots who prompted this foolish economic decision escape all the accountability for their decision. This plant already had millions of dollars of pollution controls and was burning coal relatively cleanly.